A child welfare law specialist and former Prairie Grove City Council member has proposed his own ordinance to help the schools and police deal with vaping problems among minors.
"The point I'm trying to drive is that a criminal response should not be the first response to juvenile misbehavior," said Casey Copeland, who is asking the Council to consider replacing his ordinance with another one placed on first reading last month.
Copeland said he believes education should be used first for students caught using vape products, then punishment.
"The whole concept is to keep kids in the classroom and not pull them out for punishment," Copeland said.
Vaping Ordinance On First Reading
At the request of Lt. David Faulk, Prairie Grove City Council placed an ordinance to adopt provisions on vaping regulations on first reading at its Oct. 21 meeting.
Faulk, who is in his fifth year as Prairie Grove's school resource officer, said he's seen a significant increase in vaping among students since his first year. Faulk pointed out children as young as 12 years old are now using vaping products.
Part of the problem, Faulk told council members, is that there is no penalty for it. Students caught on school grounds with vape products can be sent to in-school suspension for three days on the first offense. The police's only recourse is to confiscate the product.
Faulk asked the City Council to give him a tool to punish students for vaping.
"Anything we can do to discourage someone I believe helps them to choose the right path," Faulk said.
The proposed ordinance would allow police to issue a ticket to minors for violating the ordinance. The minor would receive an arraignment date and appear in district court. Juveniles 18 and younger who are found guilty of violating the vaping ordinance could be fined from $10 to $100, plus court costs and fees.
Copeland's Proposed Ordinance
Copeland, who spoke last month against the ordinance at the council meeting, emailed a four-page "Prairie Grove Youth Anti-Vaping & Smoking Ordinance" to Mayor Sonny Hudson and said he plans to offer the ordinance at the council's Nov. 18 City Council meeting.
"I'm just there to advocate for what I think is a proper response to misbehavior," Copeland said, adding he's appearing as a concerned citizen.
Copeland's proposed ordinance would establish a cooperative program between the city and Prairie Grove School District to raise awareness and education about smoking, vaping and other forms of substance use while minimizing the time a student or teen is out of the classroom or away from work.
It would prohibit the use of tobacco or vaping products by minors on school property, including buses, and would also apply to students from other schools visiting Prairie Grove schools.
Proposed Educational Program
For the first and second offenses, the student's parent or legal guardian can agree to submit the student to the cooperative program in lieu of a criminal charge. For third and subsequent offenses, the student would be subject to a criminal charge, as well as any discipline deemed appropriate by the school district.
The ordinance would only be in effect, according to the proposal, if and when Prairie Grove School District amends its student discipline policy to refer students to a cooperative program on the first and second offenses, instead of a school-based discipline.
The ordinance would establish the City of Prairie Grove Anti-Vaping and Smoking Educational Program for students who are alleged to have violated provisions of the ordinance.
A three-member program committee would have the responsibility to establish, monitor, promote and operate the program and would have the authority to make recommendations and requests to the city and school about policy and ordinances for the program. The committee also would be authorized to request funding and seek grants, donations and other sources of money.
For a first and second offense, students who agree to the program would have to meet no less than four hours each time on an educational program and then would be required to write an essay about the information they learned.
The committee would be allowed to establish a fee for the program and the City Council would set or change the fee by resolution or ordinance.
City/School Response
Hudson on Friday said he has forwarded Copeland's proposed ordinance to council members and also plans to forward it to the police department for input. He said the proposal would be part of the discussion at the council meeting and council members would be the ones to make any decision on how to proceed going forward.
Reba Holmes, superintendent of schools, said she and her two assistant superintendents met with Copeland last week for a presentation of his proposal. She said school officials did not have any comments to make at this time.
Holmes said vaping use has increased in the schools. She provided information that shows more high school students have been sent to in-school suspension for vaping violations than middle school students.
For the middle school, one student was sent to ISS in 2017-18, five students in 2018-19 and seven students so far this year. For the high school, 13 students went to ISS in 2017-18, 20 students in 2018-19 and 15 students so far this year.
Research On Suspensions
Copeland also sent other information and research to Hudson about the effect of zero tolerance policies and how "criminalizing childhood" is affecting the next generation of children.
According to an article in the Washington University Law Review, students suspended or expelled are missing classroom instruction time in the short term. In the long-term, the paper said, students who face harsh penalties are more likely to drop out and have an increased risk of contact with the juvenile justice system.
The article discusses "restorative justice approach," which permits schools to "engage in teachable moments."
Another study Copeland forwarded to Hudson is information from the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
This study also looks at the long-term consequences of removing children from the education setting through suspensions.
Copeland said the study found that after five years, youth suspended for the first time were 8% likely to earn a high school diploma. The study also found that "suspended youth were 40% more likely to have been arrested as adults, 94% more likely to have been arrested as a minor and 3.8 times as likely to have been convicted as a minor than a similar non-suspended youth."
Copeland said the studies were not directly addressing the rise in vaping but are similar in that the City Council is considering punishment for the violations.
Copeland said his proposal gives minors the opportunity to avoid punishment. They would have to voluntarily attend the program and complete it. The program is similar in some ways to the drug program through the juvenile court system.
He said he realizes it would not be a deterrent for all students.
"There's always that percentage of population who don't respond to positive education programs," he said.
But for some, the program would made a difference and it would give the community the chance to reach some of those, he said.
"For the others, the penalty aspect of it would eventually catch up with them," he said.
General News on 11/13/2019